Why the Montreal Impact not making the playoffs is not such a bad thing

After a 1-0 defeat at the hand of the Fort Lauderdale strikers, the Montreal Impact and its fans are seeing the symbolic playoff boat start to leave port. But thanks to a 2-1 win of FC Tampa Bay against the NSC Minnesota Stars, destiny might have a sense of humor and a feel for drama, keeping the Impact 4 points away from a playoff spot.

Putting that aside, the Montreal Impact, the MLS club, is still in process of building itself as the current NASL season is going on. Jesse Marsch, the Impact’s MLS head coach, is probably not spending his days planning with Nick De Sanctis the day to day operations of the 1st team in the NASL. As much as Jesse Marsch is observing current Impact players, he is closely working with Matt Jordan and Nick De Sanctis on the soccer operations side of the club.

Reports have said that Matt Jordan has recently gone on a scouting trip in the US to watch Louisville, North Carolina, Cal. Santa Barbara, NC State, Duke and Wake Forest. Regular meetings and reports must be ongoing within the Impact’s technical team to prepare to its MLS entry with the important Expansion Draft and Super Draft. One can argue that the Expansion draft might be even more important as it should set most of the club’s starting 11 or at least a big chunk of the core 13 to 16 players that most coaches rely on. The advantage of having coach Marsch within an organization is that he will be bringing all of his US Soccer experience and networks of contacts, scouting reports, scouts; all within reach to the Montreal Impact.

What is Jesse Marsch’s soccer ‘’philosophy’’ per say? How will the flow work within the technical team to find consensus from how a team should play to how much allocation money should be spent? How will this ‘’technical flow’’ merge itself with the coaching staff and vice versa?

Many of these questions will stay unanswered until the next important first steps of the Montreal Impact – MLS version and some will probably stay unanswered. One thing for sure, as much as we are focused on the 2011 NASL season, is to never forget: Major League Soccer is on its way.